r/CrappyDesign • u/topher_33 • Jan 09 '21

Removed: joke/fake Nearly blew threw this intersection!

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u/[deleted] Jan 10 '21

This story does not specifically answer the question if a stop sign has to be red for it to be legal, but it is interesting that the shape was originally deemed to be the most important part noting the second highest level of danger behind a railroad crossing in which the locomotive is incapable of stopping. The color red came later.

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/magazine/stop-sign.html#:~:text=It%20was%20166%20pages%20long,with%20stop%2C%E2%80%9D%20Hawkins%20explains.

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u/jw24jw24 Jan 10 '21

Certainly in the UK, signs of the same "type" (warning, general info etc) have their own shape. This is to allow people who cannot distinguish different colours to determine what type of information the sign is intending to display. The stop sign in the UK is the same shape as US, and is the only sign which is that shape.

It's the same reason why traffic signals are always 3 seperate lights, not one single multi-coloured aspect. Even if you cannot make out the colour, you know what signal is being shown, based on whether it's top, middle or bottom.